Trading card games are pretty fun when you have someone to play with. They offer not only fun and enjoyment from competing with each other, but even before and after the battle, you strategize and analyze your decks in an attempt to further improve your chances of victory. Cards that you seek may even be obtained through trading with people, which is a great way to engage in discussions regarding the card values in terms of rarity, strategic use, overall effectiveness, and more. The only downside to them is that it can be a costly hobby, especially if new cards are released frequently that can change the meta game around.

I used to collect and play Pokemon TCG when I was a kid. It was the first time I ever really considered playing a TCG game since the only other popular card game that was well known at the time was Magic the Gathering, and it didn't have the appeal to reach out to me at the time. I just simply liked Pokemon then, and wanted to check out the cool new thing for Pokemon. However, looking back at each of the card games, I feel that the old Pokemon cards were designed around much slower-paced battles with the need for many damage counters for each Pokemon you have out in play. If I were to pick up on a TCG, I would be more interested in how Magic the Gathering or YuGiOh plays, and I say this after having checked out several different popular TCGs out there, including Gundam TCG and Final Fantasy TCG.

A lot of these card games are designed in a way to balance out the usability of high leveled cards against the low leveled cards so that a good balance of them is required for greater chances of successfully pulling off your strategy. With Pokemon Cards, the method used with this is a simple use of Energy Cards, extremely basic and common cards that are attached to Pokemon Cards to enable the use of certain moves. I find this to be awfully boring; filling a good portion of the deck with these cards that essentially have no other purpose but enable moves that these cards can do or else they themselves are useless with the exception of those with Poke Abilities and Powers. With Magic and YuGiOh, it is about sacrificing weaker monsters to summon stronger ones. The weaker cards have their uses in each stage of the game, and still serve a purpose in attacking and defending at earlier stages, while being useful as sacrifices in later game. As for Gundam and Final Fantasy, you can sacrifice cards as well as have cards that generate the points needed each turn to summon stronger cards, adding more to the strategic element of deciding how to summon stronger cards. The difference in this basic element of each game is a defining element of how the game flows which plays a huge part of the game's rules.

Well, I ended up talking about the elements of card games more than the poll this time. I do find the costliness of the hobby being an issue though, which is what keeps me from playing TCGs with actual, physical cards. Instead, I've been considering getting a video game about the TCGs like YuGiOh or possibly Magic the Gathering on Steam. I haven't actually picked any up at this point however. Unfortunately, Dark Summoner and Deity Wars don't quite fill the same strategic needs I expect from a TCG... at all, really. Then again, a full-blown TCG game might not be fit for a smartphone app due to how long they tend to be.